The thrilling extended clash that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51 million spectators across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. MLB announced this marks the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Ratings Details
The Saturday memorable game averaged 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and Fox’s digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic game since the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This represents a 16% improvement compared to the last Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million.
In the Nielsen ratings, the sixth game placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game was eighth, and the third game finished in 13th position.
International Viewership Numbers
In Canada, the game drew 11.6M watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest began at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed a single run in six innings – averaged 13.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a single network in Japan.
Series Averages and Patterns
The full seven-match World Series recorded 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% increase from the previous year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This represents the initial instance since 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has seen audience growth for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the complete US average reached 16.1 million. The overall Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1 million in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s best postseason performance after 2017.
MLB stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in 16 various tongues.
